A hero of S. African freedom fight

By M. S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, NOV. 28. Joe Modise, veteran leader of South Africa's liberation movement who died on Monday, was among the 156 defendants in the Treason Trial launched by the South African apartheid regime in 1956, in the wake of the adoption of the Freedom Charter in June 1955. All the defendants were acquitted, in stages, at the end of the four year long trial. However, with the Sharpeville killings and the banning of the ANC and other liberation organisations in 1960, he like so many other freedom fighters (like Mr. Nelson Mandela himself) was convinced that there was no alternative to armed struggle to achieved freedom.

Thus, the formation of the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), the de facto armed wing of the ANC. Joe Modise was a founding member of the MK and served on its high command ever since its inception in 1961, taking part in its very first operation. He became a commander of the MK in 1965 and was the longest serving commander of the people's army. Under the instruction of the organisation's high command, he went into exile early in 1963, returning to South Africa only in 1990, after the unbanning of the ANC and other liberation organisations.

He was part of the first ANC negotiating team, headed by Mr. Nelson Mandela, that began talks with the Pretoria regime in Cape Town in March 1990. A tribute issued today by the ANC notes that MK bases were established in Tanzania, Angola and Uganda during his years as commander of MK. Joe Modise also oversaw MK cadres training programmes in the eastern bloc, specifically mentioning Cuba, Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, China.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Special security for Hasina to be withdrawn
Next     : Jaffna yearns for elusive peace